Flip Branding

It’s that time of year again, when we’ve been thinking about what Flip 09 branding will look like.

Usually this side of things is a result of a bit of planning and lots of luck. In the past we have seen images and art work from actual films or animators that we like and have adapted it for flyers, web banners, etc. You can imagine that process, not something you can actually plan for.

This year I’ve been a bit more proactive in terms of looking for animators and artwork and I came up trumps with A Man and Ink, who first caught my eye because they had already branded a film festival. Anyway, those goodfellas at A Man and Ink have been working on some artwork, which we’ve been drooling over here at Flip HQ for the past couple of weeks now. On top of that though, we’ve ‘discovered’ a fantastic designer, Rob Hildreth, who put the artwork together and Flip 09 promises, if nothing else, to produce some great flyers, T shirts and badges….Watch this space…

…all will be revealed on Monday 6 July.

The making of…

The “Deadline” animation posted last week I came across by accident by indiscriminately clicking links on animation websites I’ve been looking at while getting to grips with Flip.  I , as I’ve said before, do have a soft spot for stop motion, so when I saw it I was impressed,  I remember thinking, and actually writing.”I wonder how many post its were used to make it?”… well now we know.

Whilst reading my RSS this morning I came across a post on Dark Roasted Blend with a link to  “Deadline the making of”

The original article also has another “post it” related video which has nothing to do with animation, but made me smile none the less. I’ll let you follow the link over there to see that one if you wish but for now here for anyone that is interested is “Deadline the making of.”

Still working hard…

Wow, there’s a lot to learn about Flip, and animation in general. I thought I had a good idea of what it was all about, but I’m quickly discovering how wrong one person can be. So while I’m still trawling through the deluge of information Peter has provided for me to come up to speed I thought I’d share another animation that has caught my eye.

I would love to know just how many post it notes he used doing this!

…I promise all my posts wont be stop animation, although it’s one of my favourite forms of animation, I’m sure if they were you’d all get bored pretty soon!

Hello

Hi, my name is Steph and I’ve been invited by Peter, “the Flip Master” himself,  to blog on this here website.

I work with Peter at Light House, I can be found loitering around reception answering phones and generally smiling like a goon at everyone who comes in. I’m responsible for, amongst other things, keeping all Light House’s social media up to date, the blog, facebook, myspace, twitter etc, and now this too.

I thought I’d ease myself gently into the world of Flip by stopping by, saying a quick hello and posting a video of a brilliant use of stop motion animation, in a wedding invite. At 4 mins 15 secs he must have really loved his wife to be to put this much effort in….

Flip on the road again

there is a special CGI themed Flip screening at Millenium Point in Birmingham on the 28 May. It is part of a Creative Networks event which this evening is focussing on gaming. The screening includes Oscar nominee, This Way Up, a likely and hilarious story about two undertakers.

The Marshall Plan

Listening to start the week yesterday there was a really interesting bit on films that were made in the late 40s and early 50s promoting the Marshall Plan – that’s a tough gig! Apparently there were over 250 films made and still counting as they unearth more gems. One film intrigued me, a Halas & Bachelor ‘cartoon’, called the Shoemaker and the Hatter: how did it go about promoting this riveting subject? I had a browse on youtube to find out, but no luck. But I did find this film, New Town, about town planning. Gosh, the future looked good back then. You can see the Marshall Plan films at The Barbican .

The Great Animation Challenge

greatanimationchallenge
Flip have teamed up with Animation Forum West Midlands and Imagine Magazine to bring you The Great Animation Challenge. The idea is that we speak to a couple of bands and they very generously supply a track which you then animate. The best films get screened at Light House in Wolverhampton (the home of Flip) and the winning animator gets a free subscription to Imagine Magazine. It’s a simple as that. So get animating!

Boro-Toro wins BAFTA Award

Wolverhampton University’s Dare to be Digital winning team have only gone and won a BAFTA, ‘Ones to Watch’. Congratulations! watch them here

Please Say Something

I found myself at Flatpack Festival last week. There were lots of things to catch the eye, in particular David O’Reilly, the animator responsible for the stripped back 3d animation, Please Say Something, which picked up a Golden Bear short film award in Berlin (he also did doodles and cartoons for Son of Rambo). David talked about his work and showed his film. Really interesting work, but what was most heartening for me was to hear a filmmaker talk about film theory and how it informs his productions. More of this please David.

Innovative New Technique Developed by Birmingham-based Animation Company

those clever people at Birmingham’s Second Home Productions have developed an innovative new animation technique for their latest animated sequence “Into The Microworld”.

The film brings together the digital domain of computer generated images (CGI), stop-motion animation and technology developed for producing engineering prototypes, moving Second Home to the forefront of new animation production.

The 2 minute sequence was produced as part of preparatory work for a forthcoming film by BAFTA winning director Michael Baig-Clifford on the life and work of Wolverhampton born artist Willard Wigan – the world’s first ‘Micro-sculptor.’

Second Home’s co-founder and director of the sequence, Chris Randall, said: “This particular project involves the use of replacement puppets for each frame of action – a variant of stop-motion animation. By combining technology normally used in engineering with traditional model-making techniques, we’ve brought together old and new to create a new animation style and workflow.”